Freight-car door



L. FRANKLIN.

FREIGHT CAR DOOR. APPLICATION FILED APR. 27, 1921.

Paf ntedAug. 1, 1922.

tries.

LEON FRANKLIN, 0F EVAIJfiVILLE, WISCONSIN.

FREIGHT-GAB DOOR.

naaaaaa. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEON FRANKLIN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Evansville, in the county of Rock and State of Wisconsin,have invented a new and use ful Freight-Car Door, of which the followinis a specification.

[his invention relates to doors for freight cars, one of itsobjectsbeing'to provide a sliding door having a novel form of fasten ingmeans combined therewith whereby the door can be securely held in anyposition to which it may be moved, said door being caused to maintainits position no matter to what extent it may be jolted.

A further object is to so mount the door that it can be moved freelyupon its supporting rail and will not become detached therefrom.

A still further object is to provide door holding means which can beoperated readily and which are constantly within convenient reach of aperson beside the car.

With the foregoing and other objects in View which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that, within the scope ofwhat is claimed, changes in the precise embodiment of the inventionshown can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a box carshowing the present improvements combined therewith.

Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2, Figure 1.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates aportion of a car having brackets 2 outstanding therefrom above the dooropening 3 and supporting a rail 4 which is L-shaped in cross section asshown in Figure Q. Mounted on this rail are supporting wheels or rollers5 the peripheral portions of which are rounded or crowned, each of thesewheels being journaled within a yoke 6 formed at the upper end of ahanger 7 The hangers extend along the outer sides of the rail 4: and areattached to the outer faces ofthe door 8 so as thus to support the doorfrom the rail 4.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patgntgd Aug. 1., 1922.

Application filed April 2?, 1921. Serial a. 464,966.

Holding brackets 9 are attached to the inner sides of the door 8 andextend over the top edge of the door andclose to the inner side allelwith ,thebottom of the door opening '3 is a rail 10 which is spaced fromthe wall of the car distance slightly greater than the thickness of thedoor 8; the inner surface of this rail 10 being inclined upwardly andoutwardly as shown particularly in Figure 2 and said rail being heldfirmly to the car by means of brackets 11. Likewise, as shown in Figure1, the ends of the rails 10 are inturned and fastened to the car asshown at 12.

Mounted on the door 8 is a supporting link 13 and pivotally connected tothe lower portion of this link is a lever 14: having a long armconstituting a handle and a short arm. The short arm of this lever hasdiverging links 15 extending downwardly therefrom and pivotallyattached, as at 16 to the ends of oppositely extending levers 17. Theselevers are fulcrumed, as at 18, upon the outer face of the door 8 andterminate in downwardly extending arms 19 which are wedge shaped asshown in Figure 2. The ends of these arms extend between the rails 10and the door 8. A spring 20 connects one end portion of lever 14: to thepivot 16 of the adjacent lever 17 so that said lever 14 is normallydrawn toward the adjacent lever 17 with the result that the links 15pull upwardly upon the lever 17 and force the wedge shaped ends of thearms 19 normally into engagement with the rail 10. its the lower ends ofthe arms 19 are wedge shaped they will wedge into the space between therail 10 and the door 8 thus to friction-ally engage these parts and holdthe door 8 firmly in any position to which it may be moved. When it isdesired to shift the door it is merely necessary to pull upwardly on thehandle portion of lever 14 and against the action of the spring 20. Thiswill cause the links 15 to push downwardly on the lever 17 and cause thearms 19 to move upwardly out of frictional engagement with the rail 10.Consequently the door 8 can then be pushed to the right or to the leftby means of the lever 14: or by thrusting or pulling on the edge of thedoor and when the door has reached the desired position it is merelynecessary to release the lever 14. Spring 20 will promptly return theparts to their normal position, forcing thewedge shaped ends of the arms19 tightly into the space between the rail 10 and the door 8 andsecurely fastening the door' in place.

thrusting thewedge shaped portions against 'the rail lO and willautomatically take up anyplay that may result,

What is claimed is: l The combination with a carstructure and arailparallel therewith and spaced there- I from, theinner f-aceof the railbeing inclined downwardly and inwardly towards the car structure, of 'a"sliding door supported between the rail and car structure, oppositelyextending levers fulcrurned on the door, wedging members carried by andintegral with the levers and normally projectingbetween the door andrail, an actuating lever supported by the door, link con nectionsbetween said actuatingleverand the oppositely extending levers, and aspring connectedto one of the levers for holding the wedging membersprojected intofrictional engagement with the rail and "door.

In testimony thatI claim the foregoing W. A, VAUGHN, E. H. PnILLI'Ps.

.my own, I have hereto aflixed my signature n the presence of twowitnesses;

